The Juniata River ( / ˌ dʒ uː n i ˈ æ t ə / ) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River , approximately 104 miles (167 km) long, in central Pennsylvania . The river is considered scenic along much of its route, having a broad and shallow course passing through several mountain ridges and steeply lined water gaps . It formed an early 18th-century frontier region in Pennsylvania and was the site of French-allied Native American attacks against English colonial settlements during the French and Indian War .
98-597: The watershed of the river encompasses an area of approximately 3,400 square miles (8,800 km), approximately one-eighth of the drainage area of the Susquehanna. Approximately two-thirds of the watershed is forested . It is the second largest tributary of the Susquehanna after the West Branch Susquehanna . The Juniata River forms in western Huntingdon County at the confluence of the Frankstown Branch and
196-558: A Latinate word denoting a woodland, may be admitted; in a specific technical sense it is restricted to denoting the species of trees that comprise the woodlands of a region, as in its sense in the subject of silviculture . The resorting to sylva in English indicates more precisely the denotation that the use of forest intends. The first known forests on Earth arose in the Middle Devonian (approximately 390 million years ago ), with
294-464: A combination of measures aimed at increasing forest carbon stocks, andsustainable timber offtake will generate the largest carbon sequestration benefit. The term forest-dependent people is used to describe any of a wide variety of livelihoods that are dependent on access to forests, products harvested from forests, or ecosystem services provided by forests, including those of Indigenous peoples dependent on forests. In India , approximately 22 percent of
392-405: A different classification of forest vegetation is often used: tree, shrub, herb, and moss layers (see stratification (vegetation) ). Forests are classified differently and to different degrees of specificity. One such classification is in terms of the biomes in which they exist, combined with leaf longevity of the dominant species (whether they are evergreen or deciduous ). Another distinction
490-437: A few main pathways, including increase in commercial tree plantations, adoption of agroforestry techniques by small farmers, or spontaneous regeneration when former agricultural land is abandoned. It can be motivated by the economic benefits of forests, the ecosystem services forests provide, or cultural changes where people increasingly appreciate forests for their spiritual, aesthetic, or otherwise intrinsic value. According to
588-409: A forest may be of a great variety of species (as in tropical rainforests and temperate deciduous forests ), or relatively few species over large areas (e.g., taiga and arid montane coniferous forests). The biodiversity of forests also encompasses shrubs , herbaceous plants, mosses , ferns , lichens , fungi , and a variety of animals . Trees rising up to 35 meters (115 ft) in height add
686-542: A forested area by cutting or burning, either to harvest timber or to make way for farming. Most deforestation today occurs in tropical forests. The vast majority of this deforestation is because of the production of four commodities: wood , beef , soy , and palm oil . Over the past 2,000 years, the area of land covered by forest in Europe has been reduced from 80% to 34%. Large areas of forest have also been cleared in China and in
784-448: A legal term, as seen in Latin texts such as Magna Carta , to denote uncultivated land that was legally designated for hunting by feudal nobility (see royal forest ). These hunting forests did not necessarily contain any trees. Because that often included significant areas of woodland, "forest" eventually came to connote woodland in general, regardless of tree density. By the beginning of
882-403: A locale with more open space between trees, and distinguish kinds of woodlands as open forests and closed forests , premised on their crown covers . Finally, sylva (plural sylvae or, less classically, sylvas ) is a peculiar English spelling of the Latin silva , denoting a "woodland", and has precedent in English, including its plural forms. While its use as a synonym of forest , and as
980-579: A region, releasing water from their leaves in anticipation of seasonal rains to trigger the wet season early. Because of this, seasonal rainfall in the Amazon begins two to three months earlier than the climate would otherwise allow. Deforestation in the Amazon and anthropogenic climate change hold the potential to interfere with this process, causing the forest to pass a threshold where it transitions into savanna. Deforestation threatens many forest ecosystems. Deforestation occurs when humans remove trees from
1078-722: A vertical dimension to the area of land that can support plant and animal species, opening up numerous ecological niches for arboreal animal species, epiphytes , and various species that thrive under the regulated microclimate created under the canopy. Forests have intricate three-dimensional structures that increase in complexity with lower levels of disturbance and greater variety of tree species. The biodiversity of forests varies considerably according to factors such as forest type, geography, climate, and soils – in addition to human use. Most forest habitats in temperate regions support relatively few animal and plant species, and species that tend to have large geographical distributions, while
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#17328439901221176-412: A wide range of characteristics. Generally, richer households derive more cash value from forest resources, whereas among poorer households, forest resources are more important for home consumption and increase community resilience. Forests are fundamental to the culture and livelihood of indigenous people groups that live in and depend on forests, many of which have been removed from and denied access to
1274-571: Is a popular spot for swimming, fishing, and boating. It even used to be the host of the Juniata River Sojourn, which was held annually from 2001 (when the river was named Pennsylvania River of the Year) through 2015. The word "Juniata" is thought to be a corruption of the Iroquoian word Onayutta , meaning "Standing Stone". There was a large standing stone where the town of Huntingdon now stands. It
1372-401: Is based on tree densities measured on over 400,000 plots. It remains subject to a wide margin of error, not least because the samples are mainly from Europe and North America. Forests can also be classified according to the amount of human alteration. Old-growth forest contains mainly natural patterns of biodiversity in established seral patterns, and they contain mainly species native to
1470-630: Is high compared to other vegetation communities. Much of this biomass occurs below ground in the root systems and as partially decomposed plant detritus . The woody component of a forest contains lignin , which is relatively slow to decompose compared with other organic materials such as cellulose or carbohydrate. The world's forests contain about 606 gigatonnes of living biomass (above- and below-ground) and 59 gigatonnes of dead wood. The total biomass has decreased slightly since 1990, but biomass per unit area has increased. Forest ecosystems broadly differ based on climate ; latitudes 10° north and south of
1568-413: Is legally protected from resource development. Much more forest land—about 40 percent of the total forest land base—is subject to varying degrees of protection through processes such as integrated land use planning or defined management areas, such as certified forests. John Penn (governor) John Penn (14 July 1729 – 9 February 1795) was an English-born colonial administrator who served as
1666-531: Is not on track to meet the target of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests to increase forest area by 3 percent by 2030. While deforestation is taking place in some areas, new forests are being established through natural expansion or deliberate efforts in other areas. As a result, the net loss of forest area is less than the rate of deforestation; and it, too, is decreasing: from 7.8 million hectares (19 million acres) per year in
1764-423: Is predominantly under agricultural or urban use." Using this definition, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 found that forests covered 4.06 billion hectares (10.0 billion acres; 40.6 million square kilometres; 15.7 million square miles), or approximately 31 percent of the world's land area in 2020. Forests are the largest terrestrial ecosystems of Earth by area, and are found around
1862-428: Is that forests can turn from a carbon sink to a carbon source if plant diversity, density or forest area decreases, as has been observed in different tropical forests The typical tropical forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s. An assessment of European forests found early signs of carbon sink saturation, after decades of increasing strength. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that
1960-416: Is whether the forests are composed predominantly of broadleaf trees, coniferous (needle-leaved) trees, or mixed. The number of trees in the world, according to a 2015 estimate, is 3 trillion, of which 1.4 trillion are in the tropics or sub-tropics, 0.6 trillion in the temperate zones, and 0.7 trillion in the coniferous boreal forests. The 2015 estimate is about eight times higher than previous estimates, and
2058-724: The Albany Congress with Pennsylvania's other delegates, including Peters, Benjamin Franklin , and Isaac Norris . But Penn was there primarily as an observer. The meeting was held by representatives of seven of the Thirteen Colonies to plan common defense against the French and Indians as the French and Indian War was beginning, with the Seven Years' War between Britain and France representing
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#17328439901222156-810: The American Revolutionary War was launched at the Battles of Lexington and Concord , Penn watched with apprehension as Pennsylvania colonists formed patriot militias and prepared for war. Soon after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence , patriots, also known as Whigs, in Pennsylvania created the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 , which replaced Penn's government with a Supreme Executive Council and no royal officials. With no power at his command, Penn remained aloof and carefully neutral in
2254-625: The British occupation of Philadelphia , Penn and his wife returned to Philadelphia in July 1778, following the British evacuation. After the American Revolutionary War , the unsold lands of the proprietorship were confiscated by the new state government, but it provided Penn and his cousin, John Penn , who held three-fourths of the proprietorship, with compensation. They both also appealed to British Parliament , which granted them additional compensation. John Penn
2352-593: The Equator , and temperate forests at the middle latitudes . Forests form in areas of the Earth with high rainfall, while drier conditions produce a transition to savanna . However, in areas with intermediate rainfall levels, forest transitions to savanna rapidly when the percentage of land that is covered by trees drops below 40 to 45 percent. Research conducted in the Amazon rainforest shows that trees can alter rainfall rates across
2450-651: The Little Juniata River , between the boroughs of Alexandria and Petersburg . The river flows southeast through Huntingdon and continues to the small village of Ardenheim , where the Raystown Branch , the longest of the Juniata's tributaries, enters from the southwest. The Juniata continues southeast, through a gap in the Jacks Mountain ridge. On the southeast side of the ridge it receives Aughwick Creek from
2548-630: The Medieval Latin foresta , denoting "open wood", Carolingian scribes first used foresta in the capitularies of Charlemagne , specifically to denote the royal hunting grounds of the king. The word was not endemic to the Romance languages , e.g., native words for forest in the Romance languages derived from the Latin silva , which denoted "forest" and " wood(land) " ( cf. the English sylva and sylvan ;
2646-608: The North American front of that war. From his home in England, the chief proprietor Thomas Penn soon became alarmed at John's extravagant expenses. Peters reported John's close association with an Italian musician, whose rent Penn paid and at whose home Penn stayed until two or three in the morning. The debauched musician was, in turn, "constantly tagging after him." Thomas Penn summoned his nephew, John, back to England in late 1755. In 1763, Thomas Penn sent his nephew John Penn back to
2744-663: The Onojutta-Haga Indians. The valley was later inhabited by the Lenape until a treaty negotiated by William Penn opened the land to east of the Allegheny Ridge to white settlement. In 1755–1756, as a result of Lenape anger over loss of their lands, the white settlement in the valley suffered fierce raids and abductions from Lenape and Shawnee at Kittanning on the Allegheny River . Over 3,000 white settlers were killed in
2842-654: The Paxton Boys ; border disputes with other colonies; controversy over the taxation of Penn family lands; and the efforts of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly , led by Benjamin Franklin , to have the Penn proprietary government replaced with a royal government. Meanwhile, he was elected in 1768 to the American Philosophical Society , which Franklin had founded. In 1766, Penn married Anne Allen,
2940-571: The Proto-Germanic * furhísa- , * furhíþija- , denoting "a fir-wood , coniferous forest", from the Proto-Indo-European * perk u- , denoting "a coniferous or mountain forest , wooded height" all attest to the Frankish * forhist . Uses of forest in English to denote any uninhabited and unenclosed area are presently considered archaic. The Norman rulers of England introduced the word as
3038-454: The Province of Pennsylvania to assume the governorship from Hamilton. The Penns were not displeased with Hamilton but believed that John was prepared to assume leadership in the province for the family. He took the oath of office as governor, officially "lieutenant governor," on 31 October 1763 and served until 1771 in his first tenure. The new governor faced many challenges: Pontiac's Rebellion ;
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3136-537: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , to avoid temperature rise by more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, there will need to be an increase in global forest cover equal to the land area of Canada (10 million square kilometres (3.9 million square miles)) by 2050. China instituted a ban on logging, beginning in 1998, due to
3234-686: The Susquehanna River in Reed Township, Dauphin County immediately northwest of the Clarks Ferry Bridge . This is northeast of Duncannon and approximately 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Harrisburg . Along the river's banks there are many access areas maintained by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission , as well as informal access areas and campground river access. The Juniata River
3332-581: The World Resources Institute recorded that only 20% of the world's original forests remained in large intact tracts of undisturbed forest. More than 75% of these intact forests lie in three countries: the boreal forests of Russia and Canada, and the rainforest of Brazil. According to Food and Agriculture Organization 's (FAO) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 , an estimated 420 million hectares (1.0 billion acres) of forest have been lost worldwide through deforestation since 1990, but
3430-418: The boreal region and in the seasonally dry tropics. At high latitudes, north of the main zone of boreal forestland, growing conditions are not adequate to maintain a continuously closed forest cover , so tree cover is both sparse and discontinuous. This vegetation is variously called open taiga , open lichen woodland, and forest tundra. A savanna is a mixed woodland – grassland ecosystem characterized by
3528-407: The equator are mostly covered in tropical rainforest , and the latitudes between 53°N and 67°N have boreal forest . As a general rule, forests dominated by angiosperms ( broadleaf forests ) are more species-rich than those dominated by gymnosperms ( conifer , montane , or needleleaf forests ), although exceptions exist. The trees that form the principal structural and defining component of
3626-408: The slash and burn practices of swidden agriculture or shifting cultivation . The loss and re-growth of forests lead to a distinction between two broad types of forest: primary or old-growth forest and secondary forest . There are also many natural factors that can cause changes in forests over time, including forest fires , insects , diseases , weather, competition between species, etc. In 1997,
3724-429: The 1990s to 4.7 million hectares (12 million acres) per year during 2010–2020. In absolute terms, the global forest area decreased by 178 million hectares (440 million acres; 1,780,000 square kilometres; 690,000 square miles) between 1990 and 2020, which is an area about the size of Libya. Forests provide a diversity of ecosystem services including: The main ecosystem services can be summarized in
3822-514: The 1990s. In 2015, a study for Nature Climate Change showed that the trend has recently been reversed, leading to an "overall gain" in global biomass and forests. This gain is due especially to reforestation in China and Russia. New forests are not equivalent to old growth forests in terms of species diversity, resilience, and carbon capture. On 7 September 2015, the FAO released a new study stating that over
3920-520: The Assembly so it could select delegates to the First Continental Congress . Patriots responded by taking control in 1775, leaving Penn powerless. Henry J. Cadbury states, "The end of proprietary government in Pennsylvania may be dated Sept. 26, 1776, with the last adjournment of the provincial assembly. The governor's acts and meetings of the council closed nearly a year earlier." After
4018-717: The British evacuated Philadelphia in 1778, the Penns returned to the city in July of that year. The new government of Pennsylvania required all residents to take a loyalty oath to the Commonwealth or to face confiscation of their property. With the consent of his family, he took the oath. While that protected Penn's private lands and manors, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed the Divestment Act of 1779 , which confiscated about 24,000,000 acres (97,000 km ) of unsold lands held by
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4116-650: The Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese selva ; the Romanian silvă ; the Old French selve ). Cognates of forest in Romance languages—e.g., the Italian foresta , Spanish and Portuguese floresta , etc.—are all ultimately derivations of the French word. The precise origin of Medieval Latin foresta is obscure. Some authorities claim the word derives from the Late Latin phrase forestam silvam , denoting "the outer wood"; others claim
4214-504: The Penn cousins a total of £4,000 per year (equal to £621,093 today) in perpetuity. Penn "of Stoke" stayed in England for the rest of his life, serving as a member of parliament in the early 1800s. Returning to Pennsylvania , John Penn lived the rest of his life with his family quietly in Lansdowne . After his 1795 death, Penn was buried under the floor of Christ Church in Philadelphia ,
4312-482: The Penn family records. How the marriage was dissolved is unknown, and they had no children. John Penn first traveled to Pennsylvania , then known as the Province of Pennsylvania and part of British America , in 1752, sent by his uncle Thomas to the province as a political apprentice to Governor James Hamilton . Penn served on the governor's council , associating with important Penn family appointees such as Richard Peters and William Allen . In 1754, Penn attended
4410-452: The U.S. state of Wisconsin , forests managed by indigenous people have more plant diversity, fewer invasive species, higher tree regeneration rates, and higher volume of trees. Forest management has changed considerably over the last few centuries, with rapid changes from the 1980s onward, culminating in a practice now referred to as sustainable forest management . Forest ecologists concentrate on forest patterns and processes, usually with
4508-460: The aim of elucidating cause-and-effect relationships. Foresters who practice sustainable forest management focus on the integration of ecological, social, and economic values, often in consultation with local communities and other stakeholders . Humans have generally decreased the amount of forest worldwide. Anthropogenic factors that can affect forests include logging, urban sprawl , human-caused forest fires , acid rain , invasive species , and
4606-420: The basis of the variation of physiognomy corresponding to changes in altitude. Tropical dry forests are characteristic of areas in the tropics affected by seasonal drought. The seasonality of rainfall is usually reflected in the deciduousness of the forest canopy, with most trees being leafless for several months of the year. Under some conditions, such as less fertile soils or less predictable drought regimes,
4704-475: The canal to the Pennsylvania Railroad , which abandoned the canal in 1889 after severe flooding . Parts of the original locks from the canal, as well as remnants of a dam approximately 1 mile (2 km) south of Millerstown , are still visible today. The river is a popular destination for recreational canoeing and fly fishing , in particular for smallmouth bass and channel catfish suited to
4802-575: The canopy; but other taxa are also important. In the Southern Hemisphere , most coniferous trees (members of Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae ) occur mixed with broadleaf species, and are classed as broadleaf-and-mixed forests. Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests include a substantial component of trees of the Anthophyta group. They are generally characteristic of the warmer temperate latitudes, but extend to cool temperate ones, particularly in
4900-551: The chief proprietorship and three quarters of the total property. John Penn "of Stoke," born in 1760, was 15 when his father died. He was assigned a guardian for the proprietorship until he came of age, but the Revolution disrupted his control of the holdings. The Penns were slow to perceive that the growing unrest, which became the American Revolution , would threaten their proprietary interests. In 1774, Penn refused to summon
4998-423: The children live. Canada has about 4 million square kilometres (1.5 million square miles) of forest land. More than 90% of forest land is publicly owned and about 50% of the total forest area is allocated for harvesting. These allocated areas are managed using the principles of sustainable forest management, which include extensive consultation with local stakeholders. About eight percent of Canada's forest
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#17328439901225096-517: The cutoff points are between a forest, woodland , and savanna . Under some definitions, to be considered a forest requires very high levels of tree canopy cover, from 60% to 100%, which excludes woodlands and savannas, which have a lower canopy cover . Other definitions consider savannas to be a type of forest, and include all areas with tree canopies over 10%. Some areas covered with trees are legally defined as agricultural areas, for example Norway spruce plantations, under Austrian forest law, when
5194-467: The daughter of William Allen and his wife, who were later Loyalists in Philadelphia. Penn reluctantly returned with his family to England in 1771 after his father's death, where he took over his father's position and affairs as one of the proprietors of Pennsylvania. His uncle Thomas Penn still held three fourths of the proprietorship but had a son, who was born in 1760. John's brother, Richard Penn Jr. ,
5292-418: The density of trees, area of tree canopy cover, or area of the land occupied by the cross-section of tree trunks ( basal area ) meeting a particular threshold. This type of definition depends upon the presence of trees sufficient to meet the threshold, or at least of immature trees that are expected to meet the threshold once they mature. Under land-cover definitions, there is considerable variation on where
5390-411: The eastern United States , in which only 0.1% of land was left undisturbed. Almost half of Earth's forest area (49 percent) is relatively intact, while 9 percent is found in fragments with little or no connectivity. Tropical rainforests and boreal coniferous forests are the least fragmented, whereas subtropical dry forests and temperate oceanic forests are among the most fragmented. Roughly 80 percent of
5488-578: The erosion and flooding that it caused. In addition, ambitious tree-planting programmes in countries such as China, India, the United States, and Vietnam – combined with natural expansion of forests in some regions – have added more than 7 million hectares (17 million acres) of new forests annually. As a result, the net loss of forest area was reduced to 5.2 million hectares (13 million acres) per year between 2000 and 2010, down from 8.3 million hectares (21 million acres) annually in
5586-458: The evolution of cladoxylopsid plants like Calamophyton . Appeared in the Late Devonian , Archaeopteris was both tree-like and fern -like plant, growing to 20 metres (66 ft) in height or more. It quickly spread throughout the world, from the equator to subpolar latitudes. It is the first species known to cast shade due to its fronds and forming soil from its roots. Archaeopteris
5684-407: The family fortune. For a while, John's father refused to speak to him because of the marriage. Thomas Penn sponsored a trip for the younger Penn to Geneva to study and to get him away from his wife. Apparently regretting his marriage, Penn made no effort to contact Grace during this period. The Cox family sued Penn for support of Grace Penn in 1755, but after that there is no further mention of her in
5782-417: The forest ecosystem. Since 2002, the amount of land that is legally owned by or designated for indigenous peoples has broadly increased, but land acquisition in lower-income countries by multinational corporations, often with little or no consultation of indigenous peoples, has also increased. Research in the Amazon rainforest suggests that indigenous methods of agroforestry form reservoirs of biodiversity. In
5880-415: The fourteenth century, English texts used the word in all three of its senses: common, legal, and archaic. Other English words used to denote "an area with a high density of trees" are firth , frith , holt , weald , wold , wood , and woodland . Unlike forest , these are all derived from Old English and were not borrowed from another language. Some present classifications reserve woodland for denoting
5978-756: The globe. 45 percent of forest land is in the tropical latitudes . The next largest share of forests are found in subarctic climates , followed by temperate , and subtropical zones. Forests account for 75% of the gross primary production of the Earth's biosphere , and contain 80% of the Earth's plant biomass . Net primary production is estimated at 21.9 gigatonnes of biomass per year for tropical forests , 8.1 for temperate forests , and 2.6 for boreal forests . Forests form distinctly different biomes at different latitudes and elevations, and with different precipitation and evapotranspiration rates. These biomes include boreal forests in subarctic climates, tropical moist forests and tropical dry forests around
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#17328439901226076-524: The higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere , as well as some warm temperate areas, especially on nutrient-poor or otherwise unfavourable soils. These forests are composed entirely, or nearly so, of coniferous species ( Coniferophyta ). In the Northern Hemisphere, pines Pinus , spruces Picea , larches Larix , firs Abies , Douglas firs Pseudotsuga , and hemlocks Tsuga make up
6174-458: The hope that the radicals would be defeated or at least reconciled with the king. The war soon began to go badly for the Patriots. In August 1777, as General William Howe began his Philadelphia Campaign , Patriot soldiers arrived at Penn's Lansdowne estate near Philadelphia . They demanded him to sign a parole that stated that he would do nothing to harm the revolutionary cause. Penn refused and
6272-469: The lands on which they lived as part of global colonialism . Indigenous lands contain 36% or more of intact forest worldwide, host more biodiversity, and experience less deforestation. Indigenous activists have argued that degradation of forests and indigenous peoples' marginalization and land dispossession are interconnected. Other concerns among indigenous peoples include lack of Indigenous involvement in forest management and loss of knowledge related for
6370-556: The last governor of colonial Pennsylvania , serving in that office from 1763 to 1771 and from 1773 to 1776. Educated in Britain and Switzerland, he was also one of the Penn family proprietors of the Province of Pennsylvania from 1771 until 1776, holding a one-fourth share, when the creation of the independent Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the American Revolution removed the Penn family from power. Held in exile in New Jersey after
6468-493: The last 25 years the global deforestation rate has decreased by 50% due to improved management of forests and greater government protection. There is an estimated 726 million hectares (1.79 billion acres) of forest in protected areas worldwide. Of the six major world regions, South America has the highest share of forests in protected areas, at 31 percent. The area of such areas globally has increased by 191 million hectares (470 million acres) since 1990, but
6566-412: The main stem of the river is considered fairly clean by regional standards. The only city in the watershed with ten thousand or more residents is Altoona . Steep slopes along much of the river's course have largely discouraged widespread development. Forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees . Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout
6664-986: The montane forests of Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and lowland forests of Australia, coastal Brazil, the Caribbean islands, Central America, and insular Southeast Asia have many species with small geographical distributions. Areas with dense human populations and intense agricultural land use, such as Europe, parts of Bangladesh, China, India, and North America, are less intact in terms of their biodiversity. Northern Africa, southern Australia, coastal Brazil, Madagascar, and South Africa are also identified as areas with striking losses in biodiversity intactness. A forest consists of many components that can be broadly divided into two categories: biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living). The living parts include trees , shrubs , vines , grasses and other herbaceous (non-woody) plants, mosses , algae , fungi , insects , mammals , birds , reptiles , amphibians , and microorganisms living on
6762-530: The next table: Some researchers state that forests do not only provide benefits, but can in certain cases also incur costs to humans. Forests may impose an economic burden, diminish the enjoyment of natural areas, reduce the food-producing capacity of grazing land and cultivated land, reduce biodiversity, reduce available water for humans and wildlife, harbour dangerous or destructive wildlife, and act as reservoirs of human and livestock disease. An important consideration regarding carbon sequestration
6860-411: The plants and animals and in the soil, connected by mycorrhizal networks . The main layers of all forest types are the forest floor , the understory, and the canopy. The emergent layer, above the canopy, exists in tropical rainforests. Each layer has a different set of plants and animals, depending upon the availability of sunlight, moisture, and food. In botany and countries like Germany and Poland,
6958-512: The population belongs to forest-dependent communities, which live in close proximity to forests and practice agroforestry as a principal part of their livelihood. People of Ghana who rely on timber and bushmeat harvested from forests and Indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest are also examples of forest-dependent people. Though forest-dependence by more common definitions is statistically associated with poverty and rural livelihoods, elements of forest-dependence exist in communities with
7056-615: The proportion of evergreen species increases and the forests are characterised as " sclerophyllous ". Thorn forest , a dense forest of low stature with a high frequency of thorny or spiny species, is found where drought is prolonged, and especially where grazing animals are plentiful. On very poor soils, and especially where fire or herbivory are recurrent phenomena, savannas develop. Sparse trees and savanna are forests with sparse tree- canopy cover. They occur principally in areas of transition from forested to non-forested landscapes. The two major zones in which these ecosystems occur are in
7154-429: The proprietorship and abolished the practice of paying quitrents for new purchases. As compensation, John Penn and his cousin were paid £130,000, but that was a fraction of what the lands were worth but was a surprisingly large sum, as in some areas, Loyalist properties were taken without any compensation. Penn retired to Lansdowne and waited out the final years of the war, which ended in 1781. For several years after
7252-638: The raids. The burning of Fort Granville at present-day Lewistown in 1756 prompted Pennsylvania governor John Penn to launch a reprisal against the Lenape and Shawnee led by Lt. Col. John Armstrong , who burned Kittanning in September 1756. During the 19th century, the river was paralleled by the Juniata Division Canal , part of the canal system of Pennsylvania and a rival to the Erie Canal . The state sold
7350-428: The rate of forest loss has declined substantially. In the most recent five-year period (2015–2020), the annual rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares (25 million acres), down from 12 million hectares (30 million acres) annually in 2010–2015. The transition of a region from forest loss to net gain in forested land is referred to as the forest transition. This change occurs through
7448-465: The rate of annual increase slowed in 2010–2020. Smaller areas of woodland in cities may be managed as urban forestry , sometimes within public parks. These are often created for human benefits; Attention Restoration Theory argues that spending time in nature reduces stress and improves health, while forest schools and kindergartens help young people to develop social as well as scientific skills in forests. These typically need to be close to where
7546-460: The region and habitat. In contrast, secondary forest is forest regrowing following timber harvest and may contain species originally from other regions or habitats. Different global forest classification systems have been proposed, but none has gained universal acceptance. UNEP - WCMC 's forest category classification system is a simplification of other, more complex systems (e.g. UNESCO 's forest and woodland 'subformations'). This system divides
7644-516: The river in a section of The Book of Nightmares (1971), entitled "Dear Stranger, Extant in Memory by the Blue Juniata" (" The Blue Juniata " was a well-known 19th-century parlor song). The river cuts through several southwest-to-northeast ridges, largely of sandstone between limestone valley floors. Several of the river's tributaries, including Kishacoquillas Creek , are degraded by pollution , but
7742-462: The river's gentle course. The muskellunge was introduced as predatory sport fish and is now a prized catch. Attempts are underway by the state to reintroduce the once-prevalent American shad , which went into decline largely because of dams on the river. Walleye is another game fish prevalent in the Juniata River. The National Book Award and Pulitzer prize-winning poet Galway Kinnell wrote of
7840-955: The south, then flows northeast, along the eastern flank of the Jacks Mountain ridge to Lewistown , where it collects Kishacoquillas Creek and Jacks Creek . From Lewistown it flows southeast, in a winding course, receiving Tuscarora Creek from the south at the Port Royal river bridge and passing through a gap in the Tuscarora Mountain ridge. The Juniata River is joined by three creeks in Millerstown in northeast Perry County. It receives Cocolamus Creek .7 miles (1.1 km) southeast, Raccoon Creek .5 miles (0.80 km) southeast, and Wildcat Run 2.8 miles (4.5 km) southeast of Millerstown. The river also receives Buffalo Creek .9 miles (1.4 km) northwest of Newport . The Juniata River joins
7938-609: The southern hemisphere. They include such forest types as the mixed deciduous forests of the United States and their counterparts in China and Japan; the broadleaf evergreen rainforests of Japan, Chile , and Tasmania ; the sclerophyllous forests of Australia, central Chile, the Mediterranean , and California; and the southern beech Nothofagus forests of Chile and New Zealand. There are many different types of tropical moist forests , with lowland evergreen broad-leaf tropical rainforests : for example várzea and igapó forests and
8036-674: The terra firme forests of the Amazon Basin ; the peat swamp forests ; dipterocarp forests of Southeast Asia ; and the high forests of the Congo Basin . Seasonal tropical forests , perhaps the best description for the colloquial term " jungle ", typically range from the rainforest zone 10 degrees north or south of the equator , to the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn . Forests located on mountains are also included in this category, divided largely into upper and lower montane formations, on
8134-470: The trees are being grown as Christmas trees and are below a certain height. The word forest derives from the Old French forest (also forès ), denoting "forest, vast expanse covered by trees"; forest was first introduced into English as the word denoting wild land set aside for hunting without necessarily having trees on the land. Possibly a borrowing, probably via Frankish or Old High German , of
8232-425: The trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer that consists primarily of grasses. Savannas maintain an open canopy despite a high tree density. Forest plantations are generally intended for the production of timber and pulpwood . Commonly mono-specific, planted with even spacing between
8330-403: The trees, and intensively managed, these forests are generally important as habitat for native biodiversity . Some are managed in ways that enhance their biodiversity protection functions and can provide ecosystem services such as nutrient capital maintenance, watershed and soil structure protection and carbon storage. The annual net loss of forest area has decreased since 1990, but the world
8428-505: The type of vegetation that grows upon the land; an area can be legally designated "forest" even if no trees grow on it. Land-use definitions are based on the primary purpose the land is used for. Under a land-use definition, any area used primarily for harvesting timber, including areas that have been cleared by harvesting, disease, fire, or for the construction of roads and infrastructure, are still defined as forests, even if they contain no trees. Land-cover definitions define forests based upon
8526-407: The war, Penn and his cousin, John Penn "of Stoke" , who had inherited three fourths of the proprietorship and received that portion of the settlement, lobbied the Pennsylvania government for greater compensation for their confiscated property. John Penn "of Stoke" lived in Pennsylvania from 1783 to 1788. Failing there, they traveled to England in 1789 to seek compensation from Parliament, which awarded
8624-626: The word forest is commonly used, there is no universally recognised precise definition, with more than 800 definitions of forest used around the world. Although a forest is usually defined by the presence of trees, under many definitions an area completely lacking trees may still be considered a forest if it grew trees in the past, will grow trees in the future, or was legally designated as a forest regardless of vegetation type. There are three broad categories of definitions of forest in use: administrative, land use , and land cover . Administrative definitions are legal designations, and may not reflect
8722-461: The word is a Latinisation of the Frankish * forhist , denoting "forest, wooded country", and was assimilated to forestam silvam , pursuant to the common practice of Frankish scribes. The Old High German forst denoting "forest"; Middle Low German vorst denoting "forest"; Old English fyrhþ denoting "forest, woodland, game preserve, hunting ground" (English frith ); and Old Norse fýri , denoting " coniferous forest "; all of which derive from
8820-579: The world's forest area is found in patches larger than 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres). The remaining 20 percent is located in more than 34 million patches around the world – the vast majority less than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) in size. Human society and forests can affect one another positively or negatively. Forests provide ecosystem services to humans and serve as tourist attractions. Forests can also affect people's health. Human activities, including unsustainable use of forest resources, can negatively affect forest ecosystems. Although
8918-416: The world's forests into 26 major types, which reflect climatic zones as well as the principal types of trees. These 26 major types can be reclassified into 6 broader categories: temperate needleleaf, temperate broadleaf and mixed, tropical moist, tropical dry, sparse trees and parkland, and forest plantations. Each category is described in a separate section below. Temperate needleleaf forests mostly occupy
9016-403: The world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a forest as, "Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ . It does not include land that
9114-436: Was deciduous , dropping its fronds onto the forest floor, the shade, soil, and forest duff from the dropped fronds creating the early forest. The shed organic matter altered the freshwater environment, slowing its flow and providing food. This promoted freshwater fish. Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of the Earth's biosphere , and contain 80% of the Earth's plant biomass. Biomass per unit area
9212-423: Was appointed governor of the province in his place. As Thomas Penn was displeased with Richard Jr's performance, he arranged in 1773 for the reappointment of John Penn as governor. Returning to the province with his family, Penn served until 1776. That year, the revolutionary government took control during the American Revolutionary War . Thomas Penn had died in 1775, and his son John Penn "of Stoke" inherited
9310-466: Was born in London , the eldest son of Richard Penn and Hannah Lardner. His father Richard had inherited a one-fourth interest in the Pennsylvania proprietorship from his father, the Pennsylvania founder William Penn . It provided the family a fairly comfortable living. Richard's older brother Thomas Penn controlled the other three-fourths of the proprietorship. As Thomas did not have any sons while John Penn
9408-459: Was in his youth, the younger man was in line to inherit the entire proprietorship, one-fourth from his father and three-fourths from his paternal uncle. John Penn's upbringing and conduct was of concern to the entire family. In 1747, when John Penn was eighteen years old and still in school, he secretly married Grace Cox, a daughter of Dr. James Cox of London. The Penn family disapproved of the marriage, believing that Cox had married Penn to share in
9506-469: Was reportedly 14.5 feet (4.4 m) tall and contained carvings recording the history of the local Juniata Tribe . It disappeared in 1754, when the tribe left; tradition says they took it with them. A second stone was raised by the new settlers but destroyed in 1897. A two-foot (0.6 m) fragment of the second stone sits in Juniata College 's museum. The first known inhabitants of the river valley were
9604-645: Was taken to Philadelphia, where he was kept under house arrest. As Howe's army drew close, the Patriots threatened Penn with exile to another colony, and he then signed the parole. With Howe near Philadelphia, Patriot leaders exiled Penn to an Allen family estate in New Jersey called "The Union," also known as Solitude House, about 50 miles (80 km) from Philadelphia in present-day High Bridge, New Jersey . Anne Penn initially stayed in Philadelphia to look after family affairs while British forces occupied Philadelphia but later joined her husband in New Jersey. After
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